At the beginning, it simply seemed to be a good opportunity to express myself: what I think about everyday things, what I observe about people's habits, etc. But though it's only been a short time since I began writing this column, I realize that I'm already learning new things from it. Of course, it was just false arrogance to think that I had nothing to learn from this experience. The first thing I've learned is how difficult it is not to get stuck in ordinary ideas (or at least not to let you think that I am).

Some people love to think about "why"s. I'm one of them. I love to ask why we act this way; why people tend to say the things they say; why our minds work one way or another. This is a magnificent process which creates a chain of questions and answers. It's like traveling on an imaginary airplane that takes off from one airport when you ask a question and arrives at another one when you get the answer. You never know where you'll end up. Because of the nature of this plane I travel on, there's always another question to make it take off again from wherever it lands.
Sometimes, while landing, I discover that the answer to a very exceptional question is just a cliché. Thank God I'm not that obsessed about finding out-of-the-ordinary answers about life. So I accept the answer, even if it's not as original as I thought it would be. If I'm willing to take the risk of spending my time on asking questions which turn out to have been answered by people for thousands of years, it shouldn't be a disappointment to face a cliché as an answer.

The most interesting part is that when I reach an answer that is supposedly accepted by everyone, I also see that people don't take it seriously. For instance, everybody says that "wealth is not enough to make someone happy." It's so banal that people laugh at someone who says such a thing. Everybody seems to accept that it's an obvious reality.

Now, someone can arrive at this answer another way: by thinking about the "happiness standard." Everybody has a different standard for happiness in life, but living at that standard doesn't make anyone happy. A person becomes happy only if he/she gets to a level above his/her standard. But if that person succeeds in being constantly above the line, it becomes the new standard and stops making him/her happy. He/she tries to get above this self-defined line throughout his/her life. This vicious circle prevents happiness and sooner or later depresses the person in question.

The paragraph above is just a clearer version of the same old phrase: "wealth is not enough to make someone happy." But it lets me see one point much more easily: We all act contrary to this well-known wisdom, and there doesn't seem to be an alternative for us.

Now, am I stuck in a cliché? I don't care if I am, as long as it tells the truth. Reality is a good enough answer for me, no matter how it's packaged.

İsmail O. Postalcıoğlu (POLS/II)